We sat down with Sam (Shmulik) Segal, Founder and CEO of MediaTroopers, to discuss the shifting dynamics of the U.S. sports prediction market – from the explosive growth of mobile sportsbooks to the rise of event contract trading apps. With more than 20 years of leadership experience at companies such as Playtech, Playtika, NeoGames, Aspire Global, and iBus Media (now part of Flutter Entertainment), Segal brings a unique perspective on how these two ecosystems are evolving, where they overlap, and what this means for the future of sports engagement in America.
For decades, legal sports betting has been confined to land-based casinos and retail sportsbooks, mostly in Nevada. All that changed in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992) unconstitutional, ending Nevada’s near-monopoly on sports betting in the country and allowing each state to legalize its own market.
Fast-forward to today, when 38 states plus Washington D.C., offer some legal form of sports betting. In most of these jurisdictions, you can use your mobile phone to bet legally from anywhere in the state. 
According to a report by the American Gaming Association (AGA), legal sports betting generated in the U.S. total revenues of $13.78 billion, up 24.8% year-on-year. However, while mobile sports betting increased by more than 27%, revenues from retail sports betting fell by more than 23% over the same period.
Nowadays, the sports prediction industry is seeing another tectonic shift, mobile apps offering event contract markets competing head-to-head with traditional sports betting.
“When sporting event contracts made a debut, savvy sports betting marketeers thought it would just be a matter of fine-tuning and optimization of mobile campaigns, enabling end-users to choose between sportsbook and event contract apps, similar to how they would choose between two sportsbook brands,” says Smulik Segal, CEO of Media Troopers, one of the largest marketing agencies in the mobile sports betting industry. Working in both marketplaces, Segal sees event contacts and traditional sports betting as two separate ecosystems.
The biggest selling point of sportsbook apps is live, in-game betting. This allows fans to engage from the stadium or anywhere else during the competition and place bets as the action unfolds. Event contract apps provide a more data-driven trading interface, presenting a format that appeals to users looking to speculate and hedge market-priced contracts in real time.
Sportsbook apps compete on sleek design, speed, and integrating real-time odds and new features to keep users engaged. In the race to innovation, we see sportsbook apps investing heavily in new and exciting features to make them stand out from the crowd, like enhanced same-game parlay builders.
Trading apps are looking to bring transparency, depth of trading, data in usable form, access to market information, etc. Trading apps that offer event contracts are looking to establish credibility and seriousness, which you don’t always get by introducing more bells and whistles.
However, he says that there is still an overlap, where traditional sports betting apps borrow features from trading apps and vice versa.
But the biggest difference between event contracts and traditional sports betting apps is the location-based access. While trading apps, which are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are available across the country, betting apps are licensed by state regulators and restricted for use within state borders. If things were to remain as they are now, there’s an obvious advantage to trading apps. However, as heated regulatory and legal debates are still ongoing, for now, traditional sportsbook apps are enjoying credibility and trustworthiness that are so essential to contract event apps.
As the mobile battle continues, it’s not certain who, or even if there will be a winner. But the race itself between traditional betting and trading apps is shaping the way millions of sports fans engage in sports predictions. Or as Shmulk puts it: “Mobile isn’t just the medium here, it’s the marketplace.”
Sam (Shmulik) Segal – Founder/CEO
Sam has over 20 years of experience in the online gambling industry. Prior to founding MediaTroopers, Sam served in C-level roles in product, technical and performance management in several leading online gaming technology providers and marketing companies.
Previously, Sam has worked for several publicly traded online gambling companies, including Playtech, Playtika, NeoGames, Aspire Global, and iBus Media (now part of the Flutter Entertainment Company).
